want to end that hymn their confidence they have but that's okay that's all good morning Reformation family we are thankful for you we're grateful to see you this morning we greet you in the name of Christ if you've got your copy of God's Word we'll invite you to open with us to James chapter 5 James chapter 5 this morning we had begun looking last week at encouragements and examples of for the expectation of endurance. We're continuing that consideration this morning. If you are able, we'll invite you to stand with us as we honor the reading of God's holy word. This is the voice of God, it is breathed out by the spirit of God, it is watched over by God himself. It is easier for heaven and earth to fail than for the slightest portion, the slightest punctuation of God's word to pass away. Hear the voice of your God. The Bible says, James chapter five, come now you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You've laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You've fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example, and here's where we'll be focusing this morning, as an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you've seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he's committed sins, he'll be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. And then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wonders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. This is the word of God. Amen. Amen. Let's go to him in prayer. Our gracious master and our God. We come before you grateful that you have loved us in Jesus Christ. With a love that will not be denied, as we sang. With a love that will not let us go. With a love that is almighty. A love that is sovereign. A love that is enduring. And we, Lord, confess that we are not worthy of the least of these mercies that you have shown to us. And yet you being merciful, as your word describes you here in James 5, full of mercy, full of pity, full of tender affection for your people, you have loved us in this way. And so Lord, we come standing in awe of you, the gracious and good and full and faithful God. And we would know you more today. We would see more of you in your word. We would know the scriptures for they show us the Lord. So Spirit, take today from what is Christ and make it known unto us. Father, give grace upon grace. Give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So that we who are weak might be strong. So that we who are straying might be reclaimed. So that we who are uncertain might be made sure in you, O Christ, our rock and our refuge and our Redeemer. We love you, Lord. We need you. And we are looking to you now. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Verses 10 and 11. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job and you've seen the purpose of the Lord. how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. As we come to this passage, I remind you that James is writing to a people who are tempted at every imaginable point. The government has turned against them and so they are under pressure. Many of them have had to flee. Even in the midst of their own number, those who are of the household of faith, what we saw in verses 1 through 6 of this passage, there are those who have turned against the weaker and have begun to take advantage, have begun to misuse and withhold and to abuse, as it were. I don't use that word in the modern sense of it, but a genuine misuse of the people and the resources and the work. And the call is to patience. The call is to patience in a very difficult season and patience in view of a very sovereign king, of a very sure return of this Lord. Be patient until the coming of the Lord. The judge is at hand, he stands at the door. And the call then is to establish your hearts Which is not, as we've seen, it's not a matter of pick yourself up by your bootstraps and just white knuckle through it. It is a call to consider Him. I establish my heart only as I look at the Holy One. I take strength only as I look at His. Because my strength will fail me. And my faithfulness is as nothing. And my endurance is weakness on the best of my days. But he is strong. And he always has been the strength of his people. God's people have only ever been called to live by faith, to walk by faith and not by sight. And that's what verse 10 is beginning to get at. We've seen over these past couple of weeks that because the Lord has been faithful to his people, especially in their sufferings, the saints may trust him. And I want to show you here, three things out of verses 10 and 11, and bring some application. You know there's always more than that, but if we have time, and bring some application of this. Because the saints only endure, Hebrews 11 tells us they persevered as seeing him who was invisible. Christians have always been called to live, to grow, as it were, from faith for faith, from faith to faith. Walking in the strength that the Lord has given until he renews that strength yet again. And that principle is seen here again and again, that the Lord is the portion of his people and the Lord is present with his people and he always has been. And so we see here really there's kind of three movements in this passage. We might put them like this. There's how we view them. There's what we see of him and ultimately who God is. Or we might put it this way, there's grace observed, there's grace experienced, and there's grace considered. But at the core of this, There are sure mercies for every soul that trusts in a faithful Savior. There are mercies that are reserved and secured for every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they have been bought by the sufferings and death and resurrection of our Lord. You note the text in verse 10. They were considered blessed As an example of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We look in how we view them is they had it hard and they endured. And it's easy for us to look then and to conclude with verse 11, behold, we considered them blessed. Now that's a really fine spiritual sounding thing, especially on a Sunday morning. How are you? I'm so blessed. God has been, he's just poured out his blessings to you. And sometimes that can be a trite thing to say, and sometimes that can be genuine, that you are almost overwhelmed with the goodness of God. The point isn't to be suspicious of language, certainly not when the scripture uses it. But brethren, that they were considered blessed speaks to the Lord's upholding them. It speaks to His sustaining them, to His encouraging them, to His keeping them. Why does that matter? Because they are those who have suffered and have had to grow in patience. They are those who have been in the furnace of affliction and have had to see that the Savior does not abandon them even there. If there's anything that has always been the pattern of the scriptures, it is that the Lord tests his people, that the Lord afflicts his people, and that the Lord doesn't abandon his own. We think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. How many men did we throw in there? Three. Well, I see four. God has always drawn near to his own. That they were considered blessed was because they remained steadfast. Now, the blessedness of the saint consists, let me give you kind of the concept here. The blessedness, the ground of your blessedness, the ground of your steadfastness, the ground of your endurance, the ground of your perseverance until the day of Christ, or until the day he brings you home, the ground of all of that is God himself, and not you. You are called to act and walk, and you are doing so recognizing that it is Christ who keeps you. It is the Father who has ordained grace after grace, sustaining after sustaining, His Spirit's coming and encouraging, His Spirit's coming and renewing. It is God Himself who has appointed every place at which He will cause His name to be remembered. Exodus 20 tells us that. There are good works that he's appointed and prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them, Ephesians 2. And that means that the grace to get there and the grace to do this and the grace to keep walking to the next one is also appointed. Faith, it has been said, has a good memory. And here the apostle calls the people of God to think back. As an example of suffering and patience, take or consider the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. In other words, we see that they were blessed of God. Even if it didn't probably feel like it at that time. Matter of fact, I'd say that generally it didn't. You think of Elijah, right? Mount Carmel. 1 Kings 18. The great showdown with Baal's prophets. The God who will answer from heaven with fire. He is God and so what do they do? They dance around and they cut themselves and all day long nothing happens. And Elijah says, now we will see who the Lord is. He rebuilds the altar and he pours buckets and buckets and buckets of water. And the Lord answers from heaven with fire that consumes it all and laps up the water. We think of that and you think, how could there not be some huge spiritual high? I mean, just, you've seen the power of God. You hear sermons on that and you feel lifted. Look how strong God is. You remember what Elijah's response was? I'm the only one of the Lord's prophets left. You fast forward to the next chapter in 1 Kings 19. All of Baal's prophets have been killed and Elijah has gone to Horeb, to the mountain of God. Horeb is Sinai, by the way, where God had met with his people and given Moses his law, where the Lord Jesus himself had drawn near. And he's there at that place which bears such spiritual significance and coming off of a time of such spiritual consequence and moment. And he says it again. I'm the only one of God's prophets left. Pity party, maybe. Discouragement, absolutely. Not sure what the next steps are, you got it. And yet we see, let's zero in on him for a moment. We see the blessedness of this man. Blessedness is not a word that in that moment when you're reading 1 Kings 18 and 19, that's not a word that you're going to be thinking of. We tend to think of blessedness on the moments when we are at peace, right? Count your blessings, name them one by one. We think like that, a little happy song. Come thou fount of every blessing. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. We think like that in terms of happy moments and joyful moments and moments where we sense the presence of God and moments where we sense his fullness and his nearness. And Elijah says, I'm here by myself. And James says, we consider them blessed. Now, I was an English teacher, not a math teacher, but something in that equation doesn't seem to, that math doesn't work for me. It's not doubting scripture, I'm saying in first glance, I don't understand that equation. And yet we see this blessing of this man. God answered his prayers. God met his needs. Ultimately, we see that God encouraged his soul by his word. This isn't a southern have a blessed day or bumper sticker, too blessed to be stressed. God is good all the time. It's a lot grittier than that. It's murkier. I don't see things clearly in the moment, but Jesus does. Jesus does. He will not abandon the work of his hands. This is the promise of the scriptures. He will be faithful to bring to completion the sense's fruition, not just that something's done, but that something blossoms. He will be faithful to bring it about until the day of His return. Even in the weakest and weariest saint. Even in the one who is most tired and trembled. The Bible's description of his people, those who look to him are radiant and they will never be put to shame. Do you begin to hear something of blessedness in that? You should, because it's something that transcends the moment you find yourself in. It's something that transcends the trouble, or the difficulty, or the loss, or the disappointment, or even the sin that marks that moment, that marks that season. Why? Because of who God is. We've got the examples, and we thought about this last week, that the Lord in his kindness writes down. We saw from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that as Moses led the people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, through all of the great deliverances that Jesus worked for his people, Jude tells us it was Jesus who rescued his people out of Egypt. And as the Red Sea parted, When the people walk across on dry ground, the Lord's deliverance is seen. The Lord's hand is known. The horse and the rider, he's thrown into the sea. Pharaoh has been raised up that Yahweh's name might be proclaimed. His praise in all the earth. It's easy for us to look at those moments and say, blessedness, power, strength. And the blessedness of God's people has always consisted in the blessedness of their Savior, not their moment. I wanna show you this from Scripture, not just simply assert it. Keep your finger here in James and flip over with me to Romans chapter nine. Helps if you get to Romans and not Acts. Romans chapter nine. Begin reading in verse one. I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh." They are Israelites. And to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs. And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. who is God over all, blessed forever. And Paul is experiencing in his soul, as it were, much of what James is describing and remembering, much of what the Old Testament rehearses in account after account of these prophets, these people whom God preserved. And Paul is looking at those who are not believing, and he's saying, I wish, I wish if it were possible that the seal of God's Spirit be removed, for I wish I could be cut off from Christ if it means that it would be their salvation. I can't do that. But in the midst of looking at that agonizing moment, you hear him writing with tears in his eyes. He looks and he says, Jesus is God over all, and we note the language, forever blessed. In other words, the Lord himself While he takes pity on his people, while he draws near to his people, while he is compassionate towards his people, he's tenderhearted with our sufferings. The scripture tells us that though he afflicts us, he doesn't do it willingly. The sense is he's not sitting there dealing capriciously or playing games with us. He's not messing with us. Hey, let's play with their lives. We like to tell our kids, we had you so we could mess with your lives. That's not the way God does that with us. He is God over all. blessed forever. It's not just speaking of what He has, it's speaking of who He is. The blessedness of God is speaking here, the blessedness of Christ specifically, is speaking here of His unchanging perfections. It is speaking of His utter goodness. Not just as it is outwardly extended to us in blessing that we get. His goodness in himself. That he is light and in him there is no darkness at all. That he is, as we sang at the beginning of our worship this morning, he is holy, holy, holy. that righteousness and justice, in other words, a proper understanding of what is right and good, because he himself is right and good, and justice here being the right expression of it, not just what I comprehend, but how I reign as God. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne, as the psalmist tells us. that the Lord's glory is the sum total of His perfections as they shine forth, as they're displayed. All of this, His utter goodness, His perfect justice, His unchanging holiness, all that Jesus is as God the Son, all the fullness of God that dwells in Him, all that He is in Himself as eternal and faithful and true. The blessedness of Jesus is his objective, essential, infinite, immeasurable perfection as God the Son. It is his eternal happiness in his fellowship with the Father and the Spirit. He doesn't need us. My blessedness is contingent upon what ends up in my hand or what crosses my path or what goes in my belly. Right? That's usually how we basically measure it. If I'm lacking something, God must not be blessing. If I'm hungry, God must not be blessing. If the bills are late or the house is in danger, God must not be blessing. This is the equation we employ. And the blessedness of God in Christ consists in the one who is eternally constant and unchanging and immovable. The one who is not blown to and fro by passion. The one who is eternally sure. The one who is our rock and therefore our redeemer. That's the blessedness of Christ. blessedness, because what else could he utterly be but joyful? What else could he be but exuberantly, irrevocably, unchangeably, infinitely happy in God? And so when we see him as the fount of every blessing, we see him rightly here. Why are you talking about this, Reagan? Because the Bible describes Jesus that way. What does that have to do with James? Because we count them blessed who endured, who were steadfast. And the saint's blessedness has always flown, has always proceeded from the blessedness of the Savior and nowhere else. All your fruitfulness, Hosea quotes the Lord is saying, all your fruitfulness comes from me. Everything that we have is of him and through him and to him. And so when there is any steadfastness, any perseverance, any endurance, any blessedness in the saint's life, it is by the Savior's purchase, it is of the Spirit's bringing near, and it is unto the praise of our triune God. Any spiritual good, any fruit, Any grace that is seen is a blessing from his blessedness. It is an overflow of his beauty and fullness. It is an effect of his spirit. It is the purchase of his blood. It is the fruit of Christ's sufferings. Jonathan Edwards wrote about this. in several different places, but one place in particular, he was trying to get at this language, and so he likened the fullness of God, the blessedness of God, to a fountain. Now, not a drinking fountain, but a fountain like a brook. And he said, we don't look at a brook as it bubbles up, as it produces. We don't look at that and say there's something deficient or defective in that brook when it overflows its bounds. We say that's what water does. It's no lack of fullness in the brook. It's quite the opposite. It's full beyond measure. It's full beyond what it can contain. It's full and it spills over. and how much more so with God, the one who is infinite in his perfections and infinite in his fullness. And yet, in his grace, he gives, as Blake read to us from Isaiah 40, he gives a double portion. He gives early and late rains. He gives sustaining, upholding, keeping, sanctifying, redeeming grace. Again and again and again. It is no defect in a fountain that it overflows its bounds. It's just so here. The blessedness of the saints reflects the blessedness of the Savior. The steadfastness of the saint reflects the steadfastness of the Savior. The endurance of the saint reflects the endurance of his Savior. The perseverance of the saint reflects the perfect patience, the providential keeping, the covenant faithfulness of his Savior. So what James is doing when he says we look at them, remember them, He's not just saying, you've had a hard time. Remember, they did too, so suck it up, buttercup. He's saying, look at how they persevered. Look at how they didn't just not quit, but positively look at how they remained steadfast. And the point is not that we elevate them to some superhuman level because they weren't. And the point is not that we put ourselves on a guilt trip, although if there's repentance needed, then get on it. And bless God for that grace too. The point is that we look beyond the saint's steadfastness to see the hand that holds them. Does that make sense? Do you see that in the text? Don't grumble against one another, brother. You may not be judged. The judge is standing at the door as an example of suffering and patience. In other words, where you're tempted to conflict, where you're tempted to call it quits, where you're tempted to turn on one another or turn from Him. As an example of suffering and the word patience here, you can render it steadfast. Being steadfast. Remaining steadfast. take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. And he tells us this is something worth our thought. Verse 11, behold. Behold. Stop and consider. You think in the book of Psalms, where we don't often sing the little word, but we're called to stop and selah. You know what that means? Stop and think about it. Stop and consider. You can render it, behold. Stop and look here. And we have the same thing in the New Testament. Behold. Stop and consider. Why? Because in the midst of our troubles, in the midst of our, whether it be conflict that James is talking about here, this church is tempted to come at one another, in the midst of especially discouragement, in the midst of loss and where indwelling sin and besetting sin starts to grow stronger and that siren song gets a little louder and a little sweeter, I just gotta get this off my chest, I just gotta tell them and put them in their... Scripture calls us to stop and behold, to stop and consider, to stop and recall, to stop and think, not just emote or react or respond or do something, but to be still and consider the salvation of our God. to be still and consider the blessedness of our God. He's the Lord from whom all our blessings flow. To be blessed of the Lord is to be a member of his covenant, a member of his household by faith, and is to possess his spirit who's given to bind us to this Lord of grace. You note that this also instructs us. It not only reflects how James's church thought about this. As an example, you look at them and behold, we consider them blessed. He's not just simply saying, this is what we think, as though other people will think otherwise. The Bible is actually teaching us how to read itself. You say, Reagan, why are you talking about hermeneutics? Why are you talking about interpreting scripture right now? What does that have to do with anything? Because in the moment, what we tend to do is go anywhere we can find something positive. In the moment, we tend to just zip through the Bible until we find something that seems to speak to the moment, and it doesn't matter what it's actually saying. The Bible calls us always to consider how we view itself. How we come to it on its own terms. Because brethren, here's the deal. If we don't come to Scripture on its own terms, if we don't handle the Word of God faithfully, we're going to be expecting things that God's never promised. And we're going to be walking in ways that God never intended. and we'll be leaning on understanding that God never gave. It's what Isaiah condemned the people of Israel for, by the way. You think about this. This has always been a temptation for the saints. Those of you who kindle your own flames, who kindle, who light your own torches, go and walk in those lights, he tells them, and see how that works out for you. He's writing to people who were similarly pressed hard and tempted to despair of God and tempted to forget God and tempted to lean on their own understanding. Tempted ultimately to take their eyes off of his promises and to deal with his word and his wisdom on their own terms. The Christ who is God over all, forever blessed, is not just standing up there unaffected by your troubles. He's near. And as the God who is near and the God who has come near in taking on our flesh, the God who remains near in sending his spirit, the God who returns so that we are near to him forever, right? This God is not unaffected. This God is not unsympathetic. He deals with us through the means of His Word and His Spirit. And He teaches us how to see them in light of Him. Behold, we consider the Word is the sense of a reflected, studied, settled conclusion. We consider, this is what we've decided, this is what we've understood. Those who persevere, those who remain steadfast, we considered those blessed. The Bible has shown us who they are because it has shown us whose they are. It has shown us in whose hand they are. And so God calls us to reformat how we view troubles. And what we see in light of his providence, the God, the Christ, who is Lord over all, forever blessed, is also the Lord of providence. He is the Lord who has all authority that has been given to him in heaven and on earth. He is the Lord who rules and exercises his authority for the good of his people and the praise of his name and the salvation of his church. And that never changes. And so, brethren, why does that matter? Why does that matter? Reagan talks about, we consider them blessed. Why? Because the saints' blessedness is a reflection of the Savior's. The saint's steadfastness is the purchase of the Savior's steadfastness for you and your salvation. The answer is not to look at, just look at what the Bible shows us of their faithfulness and their failings. Although that's certainly instructive and we'll think about that more next week. The answer is to show us that of His faithfulness and that He doesn't fail. That no matter what His providence has decreed and ordained and wrought in my life, He is still near. And He is still blessed and unchanging. And His purposes don't shudder for a second. even when I fall flat on my face. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence. Violent men take it by force, but it doesn't say that it stumbles. It keeps trucking right on. We consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you note that what is undergirding this, look at this, so that you don't think that Reagan's just, you know, great stuff, where'd he get that? This verse. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job, where? In the scriptures. And you have seen the purpose of the Lord. What did the scriptures show us in the case of Job as the purpose of God? You remember how as he suffers at first, his wife comes to him and she goes, are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die, just be done. She sees how greatly he's suffering. She sees the great loss. She's in a moment of struggle herself. And he looks at her and you hear tenderness in his voice. You're speaking like a foolish woman. It's a general rebuke, yeah. But baby, this isn't you. You're almost surprised. You're speaking like a foolish woman. Shall we not receive good from the hand of God and evil also? And in all this, Job did not sin with his lips in charging God with wrongdoing. Part of the purpose of God is to show that he has always been the portion of his people. He has always been the one who upholds his people under whatever providence he brings. Part of the purpose of God, because that's chapter one and chapter two, right? You fast forward to the end of the book. Job has finally lost patience. And he has said, I curse the day, it'd be better if I had never been born. This is terrible. It's too much. Where's God? Bring him to account. It's time. Let's have it out, Lord. God's response, where were you? Three chapters of rebuke and Job is quiet. I despise myself. I repent in dust and ashes. And part of the purpose of God is seen again, not as one who messes with his people. but as one who sustains and all that he has, all that you have comes from him. Part of the purpose of God, the scripture says, God blessed him again and gave him back twice what he had before. The point isn't that God just gave Job a hard time to make him doubly rich or doubly large family. The point is to illustrate that the saint's standing and the saint's steadfastness and the saint's surety and the saint's hope, the saint's blessedness, has always consisted in the God who works all things according to the purposes of his will. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job. You've seen the purpose of the Lord. Namely, what does Job do at the end of that? I'm going to restore you, Job, and you're going to pray for these guys. There's something of a picture of one who has endured suffering and receives an inheritance and makes intercession for a sinful people who didn't see God rightly. There's something of an echo of that there. The purpose of God in the midst of your pain is to show forth His Son. It's why we are blessed who remain steadfast, because we are anchored to Him who is faithful and true. And it shows forth God's character above all. You've heard the steadfastness of Job. You've seen the purpose of the Lord. Who is the Lord? The glorious description, the Lord is compassionate and merciful. The word merciful, we think of it in terms of, this is where we'll land. We think of it in terms of when I have deserved something and I don't get it, I have mercy on you. The sense of the original, and I love that this is a holdover from the 16th century English, is that he is mercy hyphen full. That he is full of mercy. The King James gets at, I think, the sense of the word even a little more closely here. He is very pitiful. He is full of pity. It's an exponent of an exponent. It's a superlative of a superlative. It's emphasis upon an emphasis. He is very merciful. He is very pitiful. Your God is tender towards you. He's not just messing with you. In all of His unmoved blessedness, in all of His not needing you fullness and completeness and constancy, His affection towards you is tender. And He pities you. Our pride wants to go, I don't need anyone's pity. And the cross says you need every bit of it that Jesus will give. The character of our God is that he is a mighty Lord, mighty to save, and that he is not untouched by our infirmities. When we look at these saints who endured and we go, wow, church history, wow, biblical history, wow, look at that. Look beyond the saint to the Savior. and see the mighty hand that held them and holds you. Let's pray. Our Father, we love you and thank you for your word. We would see more of your blessedness, O Christ. We would see more of your mighty being, more of your sovereign perfection, more of your unflinching holiness, more of your unchanging righteousness. And these would not just be terms that we trot out on Sundays or toss around like so many concepts to be debated. We would see these as attributes and perfections and beauties of you, our great King. And we would live unto you in light of them. We would live upon you as our portion in our life in light of them. We would love you more and know you more. Forgive us, Lord, for the times that we think wrongly of you or don't think of you at all. Forgive us for the times that we consider our blessedness to consist in possession or profit or peace. And not in you, O Christ, who is God over all, forever blessed. Anchor us to you, our unchanging rock. and work in us what is pleasing in your sight. Father, through Jesus Christ, your Son, to whom be glory forever. We pray in his name. Amen. Let's stand together as we receive the benediction. Precious words. in light of considering our sufferings and considering the one who is the fountain of all blessing. Colossians chapter one, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. May you go knowing His grace, resting in His peace, and seeing in Him all blessedness and all beauty. We love you and we're praying for you. Lord bless you and keep you. As you're dismissed this afternoon, we'll remind you of two things for today. Excuse me, three things. One, We've got our shepherd studies at four o'clock, that's open to any men. We are beginning to evaluate these potential gifted brothers, and so we will be hearing at least three, if CJ's sick, we may only hear three, but at least three short sermons today. So be praying for these men, and in due course, if we believe them to have teaching gifts, we will bring them in front of the congregation, okay? So be praying for Dustin and Sean and Steven as they are preaching, and for us as we hear. All right. Secondly, this evening at six o'clock, we will continue our studies in the 1689 confession. And so I'm looking forward to that. We're just really getting into chapter eight, which is dealing with Christ as our mediator. What is it that all of our blessedness comes from God, the father through God, the son. So looking at this. Finally, this coming Lord's Day, the 27th, Little change, a blessed change, a happy one. We're gonna be baptizing Gerardo into membership. So we will be having our normal practice. For those of you who have been with us for baptisms before, it's gonna be like what we normally do, okay? Those of you who have not been with us, morning worship will be as per usual. When we are dismissed, if you need the address, get with one of us and we'll get you that. But when we are dismissed, we will go over to our baptism spot. We'll be baptizing our brother, we'll have a fellowship lunch, and that baptismal service will be our afternoon worship, okay? And so we will have time just as a church family. So bring water, it's gonna be hot. Bring lunch, and you will want camp chairs, and probably bug spray, all right? But we will send you out information on that through the text update system, okay? So we love you, we're praying for you. The Lord bless you and keep you. See you later.